Monthly Archives: October 2007

School has been kicking my butt and I have to spend every waking minute, when I am not working, on my school project, which is not going to well.

The law library is just over 1/2 mile away, so I am getting my daily exercise in by walking there and back to work at lunch time in a brisk pace. I’d run, but in work shoes that’s rather uncomfortable and I’d hate to walk into the Ohio Supreme Court building all sweaty and out of breath! 😉

I am hoping that I’ll be able to run my first (few) mile(s) tomorrow, no later than Friday. I did walk up 7 flights of stairs yesterday to the water vending machine and my legs are sore today, so maybe I’ll have to do it again this afternoon!

I signed up to participate in the Holiday Weightloss Challange…I need to loose 20 lbs come March ’08. Sign ups for the Pump and Run start tomorrow, I need to get with it…

Here is a picture taken after the marathon.

From left to right: Teri (Sister In Law), her sister Niki, Matt, Niki’s daughter Abby, Brenda, and I

I started out low because I am not sure exactly where I am at strength wise (and I didn’t want to over do it). Right now, with my current weight ( just under 180 – yikes! Good thing I am tall!), I have to bench 130 lbs, which I don’t think I’ll be able to do successfully at any time. Back in ’05 I worked myself up to 115 lbs, weighing 160.

During the PnR I benched 110 lbs 7 times.

Bench Press – Pyramid

45 lbs x 12

50 lbs x 10

55 lbs x 8

60 lbs x 6

65 lbs x 4

70 lbs x 2

75 lbs x 1

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100 lbs x 1 <— wanted to see if I could lift that much lol

The game plan is to do the pyramid once a week and then regular upper body lifting another time during the week. Oh and run 3 times a week. We’ll have to see how it all works out.

I just got this e-mail from a running buddy from my running group. He almost brought me to tears (marathon blues perhaps?):

Hey Penny,I realized last night that I forgot to mention about your 5 hour marathon idea for next year.Do you remember back to this time last year?Think about what your thoughts were about whether or not you felt you should run a half marathon in the spring.Think about how you felt about running a marathon.If you’re anything like me you probably thought…I don’t know if I can do that!

But now you are a marathon FINISHER and you ran a 5:37.So you’re thinking…I wonder if I could run a 5:00 marathon?Well, if the last year has taught you anything, it should be:*anything* is possible!It might seem intimidating to try to drop your PR by 37 minutes, but is it more intimidating than running a marathon to begin with?Teri dropped her PR by 25 minutes twice, so her 3rd marathon was 50! minutes faster than her 1st.This year I dropped my PR from last year by nearly 32 minutes.

So if you ask me, you 100% can run a 5 hour marathon!!!!!Will it take work?Yes.Will it be easy?Nope.But can you do it?Absolutely!

Running: Walked a mile on the treadmill. Felt very good, but I am keeping to no running until at least Monday.

Weightlifting: Just to get back into the swing of things I did the bench press, no weight other then the bar (45 lbs) 20 times, 2 sets.

I missed my friend Jim in the fitness center today at lunch (no he did not pass away, but rather retired on me while back! lol) With training for the Pump and Run (PnR) old memories are coming back. It felt like he was spotting me (watching me lift & make sure I don’t drop the bar) today, talking smack to our friend Don and my hubby.

Hopefully Don will go back at it next year when he turns 60…Jimmy, you better start using that treadmill that you have in the basement, can’t have Don show you off!! 😉

Co-workers, including the hubby (on my right), and I (red jacket) after a successful PnR in 2005.

Headed to the gym with the hubby today…walked 20 minutes on the treadmill and covered one mile. Nice and easy. Yesterday I got off the treadmill after 10 minutes; I could feel soreness in my legs. Not today though. It was temping to just hit the “+” button on the machine and go faster. But I didn’t. 🙂

I also got reacquainted with the bench-press. After all, if I do the Pump and Run I need to start lifting again. Not to worry though, I didn’t add any weights and did just one set of 20. After that I stretched a bit and our day in the gym was done.

My new sticker (pic taken with my cell phone, hence the crappy quality):

Thank you everyone for the pats on the back and words of wisdom. They are greatly appreciated!

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I was able to wear my regular shoes to work today and didn’t hobble quite as bad as the day before…yay, a step towards recovery (yesterday I had to wear sandals!).

Some guy in the office congratulated me on running a 5 mile race this weekend.

I was like, “I ran a marathon!“.

“How many miles is that?”

“26!“, I said.

He was all embarrassed and said, “Oh, I shorted you 20 miles!” and walked off…haha…silly people!

Today the hubby said “I think I want to start training for the Arnold’s Classic Pump and Run.” He is worried about his knees, so we’ll have to work the milage up slowly. I am very excited for him, he’s been pretty lazy (for a lack of a better word) lately. The Pump and Run is in March ’08. I should be able to work that into my schedule for the Indi 500 in May ’08.

I have a co-worker who might be interested in walking (Hal Hidgon plan) the Columbus Distance Classic in April. I was planning on running the race, but I told her if she commits to the training I’ll walk it with her. She’s one of those people that get overly excited about something, jump in head first and then get bored, tired, sick of it shortly after. So, she’ll let me know in January if she plans on committing to it. The agreement is that I’ll plan on running it until we both know for sure that she’s doing the 1/2.

Last night I told the hubby that I want to run the NY marathon in ’09. He was very excited about that, which was a great surprise. He said “I’ve never been to NY.” So I said we should take a week vacation out there, either the week before or the week after the marathon. Cranky suggested that I sign up for ’08 and if my name gets drawn in the lottery then I should defer my race to ’09. (Thanks!) When the time gets closer I’ll be sure to pump you for more info Cranky! 😉 Now cross your fingers that I’ll get in. 🙂

My game plan for today is to go to the gym, walk for about 10 minutes at a very slow pace and then do some stretching.

Future game plan:

Flying Feather Four Miler – November 22nd, 2007

Jingle Bell Run (5k) – December 1st, 2007

Pump and Run (5k) – March 2nd, 2008

Columbus Distance Classic (HM) – April 12th, 2008

Indianapolis 500 (HM) – May 3rd, 2008

Columbus Marathon 2008 – October, 2008

I didn’t just get bit by the marathon bug, I got gobbled up!

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Edit: Stopped and got my sticker last night…hopefully I’ll be able to put it on the car tonight…woot!